Transcript Slide 1

Cera
mics
Ceramics - Pottery or hollow clay sculpture fired at high temperatures in a kiln or oven
to make them harder and stronger. Types include earthenware, porcelain, stoneware,
and terra cotta.
Clay - Mud; moist, sticky dirt. In ceramics, clay is the basic material, usually referring
to any of a certain variety of mixtures of such ingredients -- fine-grained, firm earthy
material that is plastic when wet, brittle when dry, and very hard when heated.
Earthenware - pottery or other objects made from fired clay which is porous and
permeable. Earthenware is fired at relatively low temperature, may be glazed or
unglazed, and is usually but not always buff, red, or brown in color.
Bisque - Clay that has been fired once but not glazed.
Greenware - Generally refers to unfired pottery.
leather-hard - In ceramics, a state in which clay has lost moisture to evaporation, but
has not yet completely hardened; clay damp enough to be joined to other pieces with
scoring and slip.
slip - An creamy liquid made by mixing finely ground clay with water. It is also used in the
making of pottery to cement together parts that have been formed separately.
scoring - To make scratches or creases in pieces of clay to be joined together. Scoring
and applying slip to such roughened surfaces creates a bond that holds the pieces
together.
coil and coil method or coil construction - Coils are long, snake-like ropes of clay that
are used in making pottery. The coil method of making pottery involves building the walls
of a pot with a series of coils into the required shape. Once the desired height has been
reached the surface can either remain coil-textured or they can be smoothed. Much
pottery in primitive cultures was made this way, and remains one of the principle handbuilding technique potters use.
pinch, pinch-pot - Pinching is a pottery technique, making a pinch-pot is pressing the
thumb into a ball of clay, and drawing the clay out into a pot by repeatedly squeezing the
clay between the thumb and fingers.
slab construction - A pottery technique in which a form is built up by joining shapes
cut from thick sheets of damp clay.
throwing - In pottery, throwing means making a pot from a piece of clay on a potter‘s
wheel.
potter's wheel - A revolving horizontal disk, on which clay is shaped manually into pottery
vessels.
pottery - Objects, and especially pots, which are made from fired clay. Pots are
functional ceramic objects, and may take such forms as plates, bowls, cups, jars,
vases, urns, ewers (pitchers), bottles, and boxes.
glaze - A term used in ceramics to describe a thin coating of minerals which produces a
glassy transparent or colored coating on bisque ware. Typically applied either by
brushing, dipping, or spraying, it is fixed by firing the bisque ware in a kiln. This makes
the surface smooth, shiny, and waterproof.
glossy - Surfaces which are shiny.
matte - Having a dull, flat, non-reflective, sometimes roughly textured finish.
firing - A process of applying heat to make hard pottery in either an oven or an ovenlike
enclosure called a kiln. Also the means of fixing colors to ceramic surfaces.
kiln - An special oven or furnace that can reach very high temperatures and is used to
bake, or fire clay. Kilns may be electric, gas, or wood-fired.
firing cracks - Cracks appearing in a cooling material, caused by the tension from the
different rates of its shrinking.
Types of Clay
Sculptures
Coil Construction
Pinch Constructio
Slab Construction
More Slabs
Thrown Sculpture
More Thrown